Certain products need to be kept cool whilst being transported from place to place by postal or courier services, particularly from a manufacturer or distributor to a consumer for the product concerned. Examples of such products are food products, pharmaceuticals and bio-chemicals including diagnostics, and they are generally known as "cold chain" products. Other products need to be protected from chilling during transport, particularly from freezing in air cargo, and in this specification these products are referred to as "warm" products. Examples of "warm" products include certain other foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, and blood products.
"Cold chain" and "warm" products have until now generally been transported in thermally insulated rigid containers such as polystyrene foam boxes or vacuum flasks as examples, but such containers are as bulky before use as during use giving storage problems, and can be fragile and expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved transport container.